Filling in the gaps in the draw for the 2019 World Cup
There are a few holes in the draw for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. James Harrington has done his best to fill them.
There you have it – the draw for the 2019 World Cup in Japan is complete.
At least, most of it. Eight teams have yet to qualify. And the last vacant slot in Pool B won’t be filled until November 2018, following a four-team repechage competition.
However, to offer a hint of how the pools may look two years and four months from now, teams from each of those ongoing qualifying tournaments are listed in brackets, selected from their respective tournaments according to current World Rugby rankings.
So, this is how the pools could look in 2019, and what fans could look forward to in each of the four pools:
Pool A – The Party Pool
Teams: Ireland, Scotland, Japan, Europe 1 (Romania), Play-off winner (Samoa)
If you’re going to Japan 2019 and want to have a good time, this is the pool to follow. The on-field entertainment will be pretty good, but the craic in and around the grounds will be off the scale.
The most serious rugby-related issue for those sides looking to qualify for the knockout phase will be avoiding New Zealand in the quarter-finals. As the world champions don’t do group-phase tactics beyond win all their games, that’s relatively simple. Whoever finishes second in Pool A will face an All Blacklash in the last eight. Of course, whoever tops Pool A and avoids New Zealand can expect to face South Africa, who must have improved by September 2019, surely.
At this stage, everyone expects two of Ireland, Scotland and hosts Japan to qualify. But two difficult sides could fill those vacant slots.
Pool B – The Foregone Conclusion Pool
Teams: New Zealand, South Africa, Italy, Africa 1 (Namibia), Repechage winner (Spain)
Much has been made of the fact that Japan 2019 will be the first time that New Zealand and South Africa have ever met in the pool phase of a World Cup. But, let’s be honest, it’s not as if they never meet.
Beyond the Rugby Championship sides, the only question is: which side will finish third and qualify for the 2023 World Cup in Ireland, or France, or even South Africa? This far out from the tournament, Italy have to be very early favourites.
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Pool C – The Official Pool of Death™
Teams: England, France, Argentina, Americas 1 (USA), Oceania 2 (Tonga)
England coach Eddie Jones doesn’t like the ‘Pool of Death’ cliche – “Nobody’s going to die,” he said when the question was put to him soon after the draw was made. Which is all the more reason to use it, even though it is a cliche. Besides, the consensus of opinion is that Pool C was not the World Cup draw that England, Argentina or France were looking for.
No wonder. Three tier one sides with knockout-phase ambitions, and just two quarter-final slots up for grabs equals disappointment for one of them. England know all about that, after 2015. Not that it gets much easier later on in the competition. Whoever wins this pool is on a semi-final collision course with New Zealand.
That’s before considering the two unfilled slots. Oceania 2, in particular, could cause a few problems.
Pool D – The Pool of Wince
Teams: Australia, Wales, Georgia, Oceania 1 (Fiji), Americas 2 (Uruguay)
Oceania 1 could make this pool tougher than it would otherwise be for tier one sides Australia and Wales. Fiji are currently the highest-ranked of the Pacific Island sides, but there’s not much between them, Samoa (who, we’ve got as Play-off winners in a shootout match between the third-placed side from Oceania and the second-ranked team in the Rugby Europe Championship – based on World Rugby’s current rankings) and Tonga. Any one of those three could give the early knockout-phase favourites a serious run for their money.
After the Pools
The knockout phase of the 2019 World Cup looks like this:
Quarter-finals
QF1: Winners Pool B v runners up Pool A
QF2: Winners Pool C v runners up Pool D
QF3: Winners Pool D v runners up Pool C
QF4: Winners Pool A v runners up Pool B
Semi Finals
SF1: Winner QF1 v Winner QF2
SF2: Winner QF3 v Winner QF4
We’ll leave you to work out the permutations that end with your preferred country lifting the Webb Ellis trophy.
And, in case you want to know, here’s how those eight empty slots will be filled.
Europe 1 qualifier: The highest-ranked team from the Rugby Europe Championship (excluding already qualified Georgia)
Oceania 1 and 2 qualifiers: Two teams qualify from a Pacific Nations Cup tournament played on a home-and-away basis during June 2016 and 2017
Play-off qualifier: The third-placed team from the Pacific Nations Cup play a two-leg home-and-away play-off against the second-ranked team in the Rugby Europe Championship (excluding already qualified Georgia). The winner on aggregate will join Pool A at the World Cup in Japan.
Americas 1 and 2 qualifiers: Canada and USA will play home-and-away, with the winner on aggregate qualifying for Japan 2019. The loser will then play home-and-away against the top-ranked South American team (excluding Argentina) with the winner on aggregate qualifying. The loser of this match qualifies for a four-team repechage tournament.
Africa 1 qualifier: The winner of the Rugby Africa Championship will qualify. The runner-up qualifies for the repechage tournament
Asia/Oceania play-off for repechage place: The highest-ranked team from the Asia Rugby Championship (excluding Japan) will play home-and-away against the winner of the Oceania Cup, with the winner on aggregate qualifying for the repechage tournament
Repechage qualifier: The repechage tournament will feature four teams playing in a round-robin format with the winners qualifying for that Pool B slot at the 2019 World Cup.
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Comments on RugbyPass
This game was always going to be close, Canada have such a dominant pack and the Black Ferns have come unstuck in that area against teams like France and England in the past.
2 Go to commentsA distinct discomfort with the officiating they were probably selected from the local IRA narcos branch along with the commentators bloody fly tippers.
1 Go to commentsWow, never thought I would read that
2 Go to commentsExcellent match. Great to see Keenan and Ryan back for Leinster. Super result for Ulster. Season is turning around.
1 Go to comments“We need eight or nine new players, who are hard-wearing and durable and experienced Premiership performers”. So why are they scouting a retired fullback who himself admits that his “body is broken”?
1 Go to commentsBrumbies hand, knocked a Crusaders hand. Therefore, knock on in goal. Crusaders, goal line drop out should’ve been awarded. most likely after that 24 each at full time, so extra time would’ve been the right an entertaining outcome. Act Jim
1 Go to commentsSpeell cehck
1 Go to commentsColeman is gaawwwwnnn.
1 Go to commentsnext SA head coach?
3 Go to commentsGreat try by van Poortvliet.
1 Go to commentsThey have been cruelled by injuries but almost nobody (Sevu Reece and Fletcher Newell big exceptions) has played above himself which regularly happened before. Surely Scott Robertson had maintained the recruitment programme and it looks like a reasonable squad. Last in this competition will stall a lot of careers. Penny seems likeable. But it’s not enough even though this was better. We haven’t been good enough and it’s not helped by the “it’s been 15 years since… “etc “after nearly every match. Seems somehow a soft gifting of something once valuable. Kieran Read giving comments last week almost choked describing the easy surrender of possession by the forwards. I’d love to think that the senior players some of whom are back can show enough pride in the jersey to test the Blues next week.
3 Go to commentsWho will Joe select for the back three with so many in form candidates? Just hope he doesn’t get shafted like Dave Rennie and to a lesser extent Deans.
7 Go to commentsAlways reluctant to blame a coach when losses rack up, but Penney must go. The backline is dysfunctional and the coach must carry the can. No cohesion, no idea and in many cases, minimal skill. The trains out of Roma St depart faster than the ball from Crusaders’ set pieces. Wouldn’t be surprised if the forwards went on strike.
3 Go to commentsAdding to earlier comment. Cullen Grace has been playing great at no6. Lio-Willie , who was on fire a few weeks ago, had a bad game. I think Cullen should have been moved to 8 earlier, Dominic Gardiner on earlier. Feel for Quinten Strange , put in a big shift .
7 Go to commentsWe dominated the scrums Ben Curry was all over pitch again .Surely James Harper got to be one of best English tightheads
1 Go to commentsRoos is a better option at 6 than 8 for the boks. Needs to work on his windgat though.
1 Go to commentsThe Sharks’ 2nd team maybe?
1 Go to comments‘radical’
1 Go to commentsCome back to Christchurch Robbie, please!
1 Go to commentsI think there is zero chance Sam Cane will be selected for another Test. There is simply no point except sentimentality. Razor is not sentimental- ask Wyatt Crocket. Razor is a ruthless selector
5 Go to comments